Poem Tryouts: We Read Poems, Too

15Jul

7:18 a.m. — San Antonio

listening to the sound of the computer fan [I, too, will be glad to get back to my music]

Hello, all. Halfway through the summer, I hope we are all surviving. I thought you might like something a little different, this week. I want you to consider some of your favourite poems by other people. They can be contemporary, or classic(al), the poets alive, or dead. Pick the one that you love enough to share with other people and post it for us to read.

For those who are saying, ‘But, I want to write something,’ you can write a mirror poem to the one you are sharing, or a response poem. Or, talk about what it is you love about the poem. My favourites move around, but there are a few that stay, such as Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, which I love purely for the sound. I always read it aloud. Then there is James Wright’s:

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s
Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
asleep on the black trunk,
blowing like a leaf in green shadows.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
the cowbells follow one another
into the distance of the afternoon.
To my right, In a field of sunlight between pines,
two droppings of last year’s horses
blaze up in golden stones.
I lean back, as evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for a home.
I have wasted my life.

The poem is about as summery as imagery gets [no, that is not a requirement]. I love the feel of the poem, as I read it. So, start thinking and let us have your favourites, to while away a pleasant afternoon.

I have hopes of getting to last week’s poems, but no guarantees that I can comment. I shall endeavour. Meanwhile, I shall see you next Tuesday when we will investigate forms. That’s right, I said forms. Now stop groaning. I’ll give you a couple of places to look. The Academy of American Poets gives a list with a brief definition. You can pick a couple and Google them; or, Robert Lee Brewer, of Writer’s Digest, has a list and if you click on the link, you will be taken to a ‘how to’ page. Oh, and you must pick a form you have not tried.

18 responses to “Poem Tryouts: We Read Poems, Too”

Well, due to copywrite (which I would subvert if I had a copy to subvert with) I can’t post my favorite poem “I’ll Take the High Road Commission” by Ogden Nash. It’s one of the first THINGS that delighted me, intellectually. The one that concerns THIS SIGN

My second-favorite, which nudges past Pied Beauty and Poem in October by a hair-trigger spring isNaming of Parts

I had a collection on my (now defunct) computer called Other People’s poems, most of which are internet friends. But my favourite changes with the wind. I’ll post one from a new-ish book, which I like because it feels real, unpretentious and accessible, And because it reminds me of my Grandma.

The Wife of ’55 (the title poem of the collection, by Martin Newell)

History forgets her now
the wife of ‘Fifty-five
the tea upon the table
she’d struggle to contrive
a plate of bread and butter
some pilchards of some Spam
they asked if she was happy
she’d sigh and say “I am.”

A woman’s work, they told her
the totems said it all
the copper-stick, the mangle
a clothes horse in the hall
the polish and the soda
a bunker for the coal
a wireless for the soundtrack
the garden for her soul

“Waste bread, you’ll live to want it.”
her mother used to say
the Sunday joint, the dripping,
she’d use another day
the bones for broth or stockpot
the scraps for dog or birds
it wasn’t called recycling
or other fancy words.

A perm on Friday evening,
some powder on her face
when Saturday was tipsy
and husband might give chase
a comma in her sentence
when time itself stood still
if history forgets her
the children never will.

I can’t say that I have a very favorite, but at the moment I’m taken with Todd Boss’s poem, “Bravery” found here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/246702 I was unfamiliar with his work until Carol Stephen, another Oulipost contributor, gave me his name in one of those, “fill Facebook with poetry” challenges a while back. Boss is a writer who likes to pare things down, but this is a bit more full of images and resonance for me.